The Living Picture Craze

Most FutureLearn courses run multiple times. Every run of a course has a set start date but you can join it and work through it after it starts. Find out more This course is designed for anyone with a passion for film and Victorian and British history. This includes lecturers, teachers and students of film, media, history or English literature. You can use the hashtag #bfilivingpicturecraze to talk about this course on social media.

• Investigate the late Victorian period in Britain. Unravel and discuss common myths about the era, and examine what Victorian films reveal about the society that produced them.
• Examine how film became a key medium to explore the rapidly-changing Victorian world; both at home and abroad. Discover why a phantom ride isn’t as scary as it sounds, and have the opportunity to make your own to share with peers.
• Explore the Victorian imagination and learn about what audiences watched and why. Watch and examine a wide variety of films from comedies and trick films to serious dramas and adaptations.
• Draw parallels with the visual spectacles available in Victorian period and our own multimedia landscape.
• Programme a dynamic play bill for a Victorian audience and explain your choices.